Open Thread: How Do You Stay Motivated?
Posted September 15, 2008 in Inspiration, Open Thread, Productivity 11 Rockin' Comments »
Life as a freelancer is often filled with ups and downs. Some days are fantastic, others can feel like an eternity where nothing ever gets finished.
The result of this is that most of us freelancers are self-starters. Being a self-starter is a common trait out of necessity — if you can’t motivate yourself as a freelancer it will be very difficult to maintain the workload and drive needed for success.
So this week’s question is: How do you stay motivated?
Leave some specific actions or tips in the comments, and next week we will feature the best ones in a follow-up article called “The Art of Self-Motivation”.
Are You Too Shy To Succeed?
Posted September 12, 2008 in Business, How-To, Inspiration 12 Rockin' Comments »
When I was small, I was somewhat shy. I remember that once, when I was in first or second grade, my mother attended a conference at the school. The teacher felt that I was too timid and that some kids were taking advantage of me by getting me to watch their coats during recess while they played. I was too shy to stand up for myself and tell them that I wanted to play too.
I still remember how fear gripped me when I thought that I might have to confront someone publicly. It was a physical thing! My muscles tightened up, my stomach was in knots, and sometimes I even felt like I couldn’t breath. Once, I was actually so nervous that I got dizzy and almost fainted.
Fortunately, I outgrew much of my shyness by junior high, but even now I still feel slightly uncomfortable when I realize that I will have to contact a new individual face-to-face, or even by telephone. I’d much rather use e-mail to communicate.
Shyness is painful for anyone, but if you are a freelancer, being too shy can be a serious problem. Shyness can damage your freelancing business — because being a freelancer requires a certain amount of customer contact and self-promotion if you want to succeed. A business owner who is too shy could pay a steep price.
Luckily, for most people it doesn’t have to be that way. Shyness doesn’t have to hold you back. If you’re shy, you may be able to overcome it. Here are some ideas:
How to Create Product Labels in Photoshop
Posted September 12, 2008 in freelancenews Add Comment »
How to Create Product Labels in Photoshop
Learn how to create “Product Labels” in Photoshop. This tutorial demonstrates how to create a green tea label with a ninja character in background.
14 Free Vector Scatter Brushes & How-To
Posted September 11, 2008 in freelancenews Add Comment »
14 Free Vector Scatter Brushes & How-To
Here you’ll find a way to easily make explosive vector graphics with some astonishingly cool scatter brushes.
How To Set Boundaries With Your Clients, Part One: Agreeing On Scope
Posted September 11, 2008 in Business, How-To 15 Rockin' Comments »
Last week we talked about the importance of setting boundaries with your clients. If you aren’t clear on your availability, response time and process for adding “just one more thing” into an established project from the very beginning, then you’re leaving yourself wide open for your clients to walk all over you. Whether they do it intentionally or not, clients will add more and more onto your plate if you let them –- so you’ve got to take preemptive action to make sure that doesn’t happen.
But if the thought of taking a hard line makes you cringe, rest easy – you don’t have to be a jerk to save yourself from becoming a doormat. This post is the beginning of a series that will walk you through how to have more peace of mind with every project (while keeping your client more than satisfied). Class is in session — let’s begin.
[Click Here to Read More...]
AskFreelancers: Music you listen to when working
Posted September 10, 2008 in freelancenews Add Comment »
AskFreelancers: Music You Listen to While Working
Freelancers answer the question: “What styles or artists do you listen to when working”?
How To Set Up Your Wacom for Awesome Results
Posted September 10, 2008 in freelancenews Add Comment »
How To Set Up Your Wacom for Awesome Results
The basics of getting your Wacom tablet set for awesome results.
16 Tutorial And Resource Sites For Web-Design And Web-Dev Addicts
Posted September 10, 2008 in Programming, Tools/Resources, Web Design 18 Rockin' Comments »
In order to stay at the top of their game, designers need to always work on sharpening their skills and learn new techniques and tricks. Fortunately for us there are tons of tutorial and resource sites out there to help us do just that! So I thought I’d make a list of my favorite ones. I know you probably already know many of these sites, but they’re my faves!
Of course, feel free to add to the list! Which ones are your faves?
Top 10 Photoshop Tutorials of August
Posted September 9, 2008 in freelancenews Add Comment »
Top 10 Photoshop Tutorials of August
Help Developer’s top 10 Photoshop Tutorials countdown for August.
Try searching "Getting Clients" or "Productivity"
FreelanceCommunity
Free Resource: Massive Web UI and Button Set
This is a free photoshop set provided by MediaLoot with hundreds of free buttons, boxes, and other useful web elements.5 Fresh and Useful jQuery Plugins Were Born in November 2009
In November 2009, 5 jQuery plugins were born that are new and useful for web designers. Read this post to learn more.How Well Do You Understand CSS Positioning?
The css position property seems easy to grasp, but it works a little differently than it appears on the surface.
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